Phoenix Sullivan & Jennifer Blake, You Should Be Fucking Ashamed of Yourselves
Monday, August 15, 2011Posted in: Author should not read without a bottle of Jack Daniels, Batshit Crazy, Books that make me want to go Aaaarrrrghh, Fucked Up People
I assume that the majority of you will have read the review of Phoenix Sullivan’s book over at Dear Author by now?
If you haven’t already, this is not a bad thing believe me.
The following post is full of bad words. Lots of bad words. You have been warned.
Basically, apparently, the book is set in pre-Arthurian times. The heroine gets kidnapped by the ‘hero’ and whilst in his care, gets raped repeatedly by different men. When I say repeatedly, I mean repeatedly. In fact, the way the reviewer tells it, the raping of the heroine becomes something of a sport.
If this wasn’t bad enough, there’s also a kidnapped eleven year old who is also regularly raped, something that apparently turns our heroine on. Yep, you read that right.
Here’s the excerpt that I lifted from DA, highlighting the heroine’s horniness over hearing an eleven year old child being raped.
“Invariably, each night before he left, Ector would call out, “God grant you a good evening, Lady.” And invariably, Elsbeth, hidden behind her door, would blush, knowing that Ector knew she could hear.
Part of the blush was infuration, too. Knowing that she could hear every groan, every slap of flesh on flesh, nearly every drawn breath, still he came and still he went as if he were but a doting grandsire visiting his grandchild. No decency, no modesty, no Christian humility.
And she hated him, too, because no matter how hard she tried to ignore what was going on each night in her antechamber, her body wouldn’t let her. It yearned for the feel of another’s flesh on hers. Yearned for the breaching that made Ruth gasp each time it happened.”
Seriously, what the actual fuck?
What kind of twisted fucking bitch writes a book like this?
I don’t have a problem with the inclusion of multiple rape scenes, there are plenty of writers out there who include such scenes in their books, but the difference for me is that generally speaking, they don’t treat the subject as casually as Miss Phoenix seems to have done here.
And what kind of sick bitch presents the raping of an eleven year old as an erotic and pleasurable act?
The most astounding bit about this, is that the self-pubbed writer is the niece of Jennifer Blake, a successful historical romance author. Not only that, but allegedly Ms Blake has been pimping this book all over the place.
I don’t have a problem with nepotism, but seriously Jennifer Blake? How the fuck can you justify pimping a book that shows such blatant disregard for rape victims, a book that appears to condone rape, and a book that encourages paedophilia? What kind of fucking drugs are you on? Are you fucking nuts?
In case you don’t understand what paedophilia is Ms Blake, let me introduce you to Sarah Payne.
In 1991 Sarah was abducted from her home. She was found sixteen days later, brutally raped and murdered by a paedophile, who had a thing for young flesh. She was eight years old. Does the thought of Sarah’s rape turn you on? Does it?
How about the rape and murder of seven year old Megan Kanka? Does that do it for you?
In my country there are over two hundred and fifty thousand paedophiles in operation. Men who force young children to give them blowjobs. Men who tear into babies as young as three months old. Does that turn you on?
How fucking dare you pimp a book that glorifies paedophilia and rape? How fucking dare your niece write a book that betrays women on so many levels that it makes me sick just thinking about it? How fucking dare you?
I understand that authors aren’t necessarily what they write, and that you guys should be allowed to write about anything you damn well please, but surely there is something inside that would stop a decent person from putting a positive spin on paedophilia? Surely as the successful, experienced author here, you could have advised your niece that there are just some things that the average decent person just can’t stomach? Surely???
If this books was an effort to shock readers and get them talking about the book, well done, your niece has fucking succeeded. But I’m afraid this reader will remember the name Phoenix Sullivan, and endeavour to avoid any books written by her in the future.
You, Ms Blake, suck. And so does your niece.
Rant over.
UPDATED TO ADD:
Check out Jennifer Blake’s sickening rebuttal here.
I’m afraid that to me, Jennifer Blake will always be that author who thought it was ok to present the raping of an eleven year old girl as a pleasurable act.
KB/KT Grant
August 15
8:57 pm
If anyone says it’s acceptable for an 11 yr old to be raped in this type of book because of the time period presented, I’ll vomit.
To write a heroine who gets off on an 11 yr old being raped is simply sick and disturbing in so many ways.
Dorothy Mantooth
August 15
11:41 pm
WOW.
Just…wow.
I’ve written a book with a rape in it (female rapes male). It was not a sexy thing to write.
I’ve written characters who’ve been sexually abused as children. None of them look back with longing. I’ve been sexually abused as a child. It is not something I remember fondly. It is certainly not something decent people, no matter what time period, condone or approve of, and it is something no one but an absolute monster would be turned on by.
(BTW, all this “But it’s historically accurate” stuff? Generally not true anyway. Yes, noblemen often married young girls, but even a quick glance shows that in most cases the marriages weren’t consummated for several years. At that point in time a couple could be–as many of you historical readers know–legally married by “plight troth,” or a pledge to marry/signing of a marriage contract. They could even be married by proxy. But usually–not always, but usually–the marriage wasn’t actually “finalized” before a priest for some time, and again, if the bride was still very young they weren’t usually consummated right away. An example would be Isabelle de Angouleme, bride of King John; they married in 1200 when Isabelle was twelve, and their first child was born in October 1207, which can certainly strongly infer that the marriage wasn’t consummated for at least a couple of years–even if we give them a year to conceive that puts us at 1206, when she would have been eighteen. Husbands who did push the bride to do so were frowned upon.)
The idea of any woman lying back and getting turned on while imagining a young child being raped is so gross I don’t even have words for it, and any adult woman in this day and age who finds such a character appealing is someone I want nothing to do with.
*stunned*
Las
August 16
5:05 pm
I had missed the detail about Jennifer Blake when I first heard about this. I’ve never read her books and I don’t know anything about her, so I’m not really trying to defend her, but I’d be willing to bet that Blake didn’t even read that book. I say that just because my bullshit radar always goes crazy when an author recommends another author’s book, especially when that other author has the same publisher or is a known friend or, in this case, relative. Those author quotes on book covers? I don’t believe them for a second. So it seems highly likely to me that Blake just blindly recommended this book without knowing much about it. Unless she’s known to be one of the notoriously batshit romance authors, I’d find it hard to believe that an established author would risk her reputation in such a stupid way. That book sounds disgusting.
Has she continued recommending this book since the reviews came out? If so, then I take it all back and she deserves to be raked over the coals for this.
Lynn
August 16
6:19 pm
Here is Jennifer Blake’s reply to the DA review – she stands by her blurb and recommednation.
http://jenniferblakejournal.blogspot.com/
Lynn
August 16
6:20 pm
sorry “recommendation”
Tiffany
August 16
6:44 pm
That is sick. The horrifically twisted portrayal of rape and consent issues in so many romance books has left me flabbergasted in the past, but this trumps them all.
Las
August 16
7:21 pm
Ugh, and she’s one of those authors who bitches about “mean” reviews, too. Yeah, there’s another author I won’t be spending my money on.
Thanks, Lynn.
Dorothy Mantooth
August 17
12:34 am
My favorite part of the rebuttal is where she says the passage quoted by DAJanuary (in which the heroine is aroused by the child’s rape) is actually “the longing for the comfort of human touch,” and implies DAJanuary isn’t smart enough to understand Show, not Tell.
Except the real problem is that Phoenix Sullivan is not a good enough writer to accurately Show, not Tell. The passage as quoted is pretty damn clear. And as the writer, it’s Phoenix Sullivan’s job to make herself understood.
Karen Scott
August 17
10:52 am
@Katiebabs She’s no better than that pervert Chancery Stone, so my ire is aimed more at the apparently reasonable author who unashamedly pimped her books.
@Lynn Thanks for the link Lynn.
@Las You and me both.
@DorothyMantooth It would be interesting to see whether she’d have the same opinion if it hadn’t been her niece who had written the book…
@Tiffany I’m pretty sure most normal people feel the same way.
Michelle
August 18
12:40 am
What was even more disturbing were the people defending the book on the dear author site. Adults defending why it is ok to rape and torture children.
Tiffany
August 18
3:52 am
I just took a look at Sullivan’s rebuttal. Love her claim that the scene was all about the heroine longing a human touch. I guess the fifteen times she’d been raped prior to that scene didn’t count, just if someone else is being raped.
Jessi
August 22
7:58 am
This is beyond disgusting in so many ways. That a woman would actually write about rape in such a manner as to make it seem a non-event is unfathomable.
This is a slap in the face to rape survivors, especially the hero’s (and I use the term loosely)assumption that the heroine actually participated in one of of the rapes. Too many victims have been accused of leading a man on or wearing suggestive clothing, and that’s what led to their rape. This is precisely why so many rape victims don’t come forward.
Rape is not something that should be used so callously, and to include it for the purpose of furthering a plot is sickening. Add in the pedophile, and you have a recipe for a book that deserves to be torched.
You’re absolutely right, Karen. Ms. Sullivan should be ashamed, and I hope readers who have yet to purchase this book will take note of DA’s review and spend their money on books that actually have protagonists who aren’t wastes of oxygen.
Becky H
August 23
1:54 am
I’m sorry but defending a book that seems to glamorize pedophilia is insane. If it were my niece writing something like that I tell her that she needs to have her head examined. As others have said this is a slap in the face to rape survivors. People should take the money they would spend on that trash and donate it to rape victim support organizations